Microsoft rolling remote management for Android, iOS
updated 05:00 pm EDT, Wed March 23, 2011
Microsoft SCCM will remote admin Android and iOS
Microsoft at its Management Summit on Wednesday surprised guests by revealing that the next version of System Center Configuration Manager would give remote control for rival mobile platforms. A beta and final versions will allow monitoring for Android, iOS, and Symbian in addition to Windows Phone 7. It justified the extra support as grappling with the "consumerization" of IT that let companies bring in devices their workers really wanted but while keeping them relatively secure.
The approach is somewhat in contradiction of Microsoft's own strategy to drive companies towards Windows tablets. It recently put out a presentation to scare companies away from iPads by casting them as impossible to properly manage, but SCCM would deflate that argument by providing a Microsoft-made tool. Microsoft already supports iOS, but usually only for apps it wants to be cross-platform or would otherwise be a good fit, such as Bing, Tag Reader, and OneNote.
The adoption is partly an acknowledgment that the iPad has been more readily embraced by companies than Windows tablets despite Tablet PC having more than eight years on the market. More than 80 percent of the Fortune 100 have iPads either in active use or in trials, but Windows tablets are still mostly relegated to niches such as certain doctors or warehouse workers. [via ZDNet]
